The fay have long been known to humankind by a variety of names. Elves, fey, imps, fairies, fair folk and a plethora of others, mostly uttered only silently and with an air of mistrust or disdain. I shall use the term “fay”, as this is the term used by the fay themselves on the rare occasions they require a catch-all terms for all intelligent creatures inhabiting their realm. The fay are often portrayed as the antagonists of various stories and cautionary tales for children, many of which have some grounding in actual historical events, although of course the stories as we know them are seen entirely from a human perspective, and never take into account the unique perspective of the fay. The sad truth of the matter is that the relationship between the fay and humankind is one based almost entirely around mutual misunderstanding and incomprehension of each others’ culture and nature. To demonstrate, I shall henceforth comment upon several common themes within human stories about the fay and attempt to look at them from a fay perspective. The very most common type of story relating to the fay (or “fairy tale” as I have sometimes heard them called) is one we are all familiar with. The story of a young man or woman, sometimes even a small child (most commonly when the story in question is told to misbehaving or careless children), is either abducted by one of the fay or accept their invitation, and as such find themselves in the world of the fay. When they escape/take their leave hours or days later, they come home only to find that they have been gone for hundreds of years, and all their family and friends are long dead. In some stories they then instantly age until they are little more than dust, dying on the spot, but my research has found no factual basis for such an occurrence. My assumption is that this detail was at some point added to the retelling of these stories to give them a more dramatic conclusion, and to make the ending tragic rather than melancholy. The base of the story, however, has a significant basis in fact. My research has discovered multiple accounts of humans disappearing without warning in an area known to be a gateway between the realms, and returning just as suddenly years, decades, or on occasion even centuries later without appearing to have aged a day. It is easy to see how many humans would lay the blame square on the shoulders of the fay. The truth, however, is more complicated than that. In order to truly understand this story, we must first comprehend the nature of the world of the fay, which is far different from our own. For in the realm of the fay, time does not function as it does here. To the fay, time exists merely as duration, and carries few of the effects its passage has in our world. In the fay world, no-one grows any older, even mortal beings such as ourselves. Another significant difference is that the sun never moves in the land of the fay. In some regions it is forever high noon, in others midnight lasts eternal, and yet some are bathed in constant twilight. Another important matter is that the base biological needs hold no sway within the fay realm. Within the realm of the fay, there is no hunger, no thirst and no tiredness. Eating is something the fay do only for their enjoyment when in their own realm, and they never sleep. Finally, one must understand an aspect of fay culture which is very different from our own. As fay do not think of time the same way we do, they do not consider such a thing as an invitation to have a set duration. If one of the fay where to invite you to their home, you would always be welcome there in perpetuity unless the invitation was to be specifically rescinded by your host, which in itself is considered a rather rude thing to do among the fay, and as such is quite uncommon (this, incidentally, is also why there are so many stories about humans showing a fay hospitality, only for the fay to return to their dwelling again and again, and then get upset if refused entry). Putting these factors together, it is easy to see how a series of events such as the one described above could occur without any menace intended by either party. One of the fay, having met a human in one of their rare ventures into our world, invites him or her to dine with them or some other social activity. The human accepts and follows them to their world, were he or she is bereft of all of humanity’s usual ways of keeping tracks of time. After all, the main two ways in which a human being tracks the passage of time (not counting the use of chronometers, which will not function correctly in the fay world anyway) are the motion of the sun, or physiological signals such as hunger or tiredness. As previously mentioned, all those signs are missing in the fay world (in fact, some accounts even state that one will never even feel full or bloated in the fay world no matter how much one eats or drinks, though I cannot claim to understand the mechanics behind this). As such, it is only to easy to imagine a human being spending vast amounts of time in the fay world, all the while deluding themselves into thinking they have been there for only a short time. The fay host, meanwhile, might perhaps wonder at the human’s desire to remain with them so long, but is not likely to question this decision, as they would consider that a rather rude thing to do. And as such, miscommunication and a lack of understanding can cause a tragedy, even while both parties mean well. Another common tale is that of a trickster imp, who will use magic to turn useless matter into gold, and then use the gold to pay a human being for some item or service. But much to the human being’s dismay, the gold will return to the matter it originally was a mere day after the transaction was made. Again, the real culprit of this drama is time. Transmutation, though a tad obscure, is hardly an unknown form of magic even among humans (although the particular spell to transform base matter into gold is one known only to the fay, which is probably for the better given how much trouble has been caused by coin counterfeiters in recent years even without magical aid). As any student of transmutation will tell you, the first rule of transmutation is that no change made by magic is permanent, and any transmuted matter or being will eventually return to its original state. This principle applies just as much to fay magic as it does the magic practiced by humans. However, as has been established before, time does not pass in the land of the fay as it does here. The spell fay use to transmute base matter into gold reverts after one day has passed, but in the fay world, there is only one day, and it never passes. Add to this the fact that few fay ever visit our world for more than a few hours at a time, lest the gate they used to arrive here close behind them, rendering them stuck in our world until it reopens, which could be a matter of months or even years. The long and short of it is that most fay simply do not know that their transmutation will expire, nor have they had any opportunity to find out that it does. Again the blame is not on the fay, nor on the humans, but on the mutual ignorance which keeps our two societies at odds with one another. Finally, another depressingly common belief is that the fay are wife/husband-stealers. Many are the tales of poor men or women whose spouse has been seduced by one of the fay, and the fay, if confronted, will invariably either act entirely cavalier about the accusations, or deny them outright even as they lie in the embrace of the contested spouse. Though this may seem hard to justify, the root of the problem lies, again, in a cultural difference. Though it may seem hard for us to comprehend (I know I was certainly quite shocked when I first learned about this) the physical intimacies are not seen as being particularly significant by the fay. In the world of the fay, a kiss is considered barely more intimate than a friendly handshake is in our world, and what I will tactfully refer to as lovemaking is barely thought to hold more meaning than companionable hug might to us. While the development of fay culture and traditions are mostly unknown even to me (owing in large part to the fact that the fay do not, nor have they ever, kept any form of written history), I believe this difference in values might take its roots in the fact that the fay do not bear children in at all the same fashion as us. The entire process of fay reproduction has only been explained to me in the vaguest terms, but from what I can gather mutual love among the fay causes the ambient magic of the fay realm to react in such a way as to create a new fay, fully grown even at “birth”, which possesses the traits of both parents (the reason why the fay still posses the biological equipment used by mortal beings to reproduce is anyone’s guess, though I suppose it is no stranger than the fact they have stomachs despite not needing to eat). It is probably due to this difference that what is considered by us to be more chaste expressions of love, such as perhaps the exchange of terms of endearment or readings of romantic poetry, are considered very private and intimate things to the fay. As such, while the physical act of lovemaking is quite commonplace and done without much thought to place or location (especially by types of fay who derive magical energy from performing such acts, such as nymphs, satyrs and succubi, which has given these types of fay an incredibly poor reputation among certain groups), the purely emotional expressions of love are usually kept private. In fact, some records exist of fay being embarrassed or indignant at such things as a young couple proclaiming their undying love for each other in public. It should also be noted that despite often being open to physical advances from multiple people, almost all fay are strictly monogamous. Understandably, all this has caused a lot of problems for both humans and fay in the form of misunderstanding each others’ intentions. Finally, one should note that it is entirely possible for human/fay couples to bear children in both the manner of the fay (while in the fay realm) and in the mortal fashion (while on our world, and only so long as the sheer physical difference is not a hindrance; for example, there have been records of male pixies impregnating human women, but never the other way around, which if understandable, given that human/pixie hybrids tend to be larger than full-grown pixies even as infants, see chapter on pixies for further detail). This often catches the visiting party by complete surprise, and has been known to cause significant strife. Now, given all the above differences (which only begins to cover the totality of what separates humankind from the fay) it is easy to see how misunderstandings might be frequent, and sometimes result in some rather severe unpleasantness (see the chapter on goblins for details on the three-hundred year war). And this is exactly why I am now penning this tome. It is my hope that this book shall help foster a greater understanding between the fay and humankind, that one day we might learn to coexist in peace, free of distrust, fear and persecution. If, by the time you put down this volume, you feel you understand the seemingly mysterious fay even just a little better, then my work here has not been in vain. Wishing you all the best. /The Lion of Southwall